Metallica's Hammett Used Music To Turn Negative Into Positive

William Lee | 11-13-2019

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett discovered as a teenager that he could channel his anger and discontent into something positive with his guitar playing.

Kirk was one of the stars profiled in Rolling Stone's "Musicians On Musicians" issue and was interviewed by St. Vincent (Annie Clark) and during the chat he discussed how music helped him during his younger years.

He said "You can tap into that rage, and good things come out of that. I was a city kid who moved to the suburbs. The culture shock drove me to be even more introverted, so it was good I had a guitar.

"I discovered that playing was a great way to calm myself down and relax. I literally sat in my bedroom for three or four years and just played guitar, saying, 'F*** those suburban kids.' I didn't really mean that, but I was angry because of my environment. I wrote the 'Die! Die! Die!' riff for 'Creeping Death' when I was 16 or 17 years old.

"I remember playing that in my bathroom, going, 'This is different from a lot of the stuff I've been listening to. Wow.' You can share your music with the world, but deep down, you know that it's really just yours. I entertain that notion a lot because I'm an introvert.

"Just the other day, we played 'Creeping Death' and people were singing, 'Die! Die! Die!' Like, 'F***, I'm still in my bedroom!'"